Together We Soar-A Northside Elementary Celebration

March 5, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Together We Soar!

The administration and staff at Northside Elementary held a celebration last week to commemorate the school’s having made the list of Tennessee’s highest performing schools and districts.

The staff was treated to a barbeque lunch, and they cut a cake to mark the accomplishment.

In a report released last month, the Tennessee Department of Education gave hundreds of schools including Northside Elementary “Reward” status for the 2022-23 school year, meaning they demonstrated high levels of performance, met specific goals to improve performance or both.

First year Northside Principal Angela Johnson said the “Reward School” honor was hard earned by the educators at the school and well deserved.

“Today we are celebrating that Northside Elementary is a Reward School and that designation was given to us by the Department of Education,” said Principal Johnson. “Its based-on performance and growth in the school. Its also for schools that have an overall federal accountability score greater than or equal to 3.1 out of 4.0. We are celebrating our teachers, faculty, and staff and all their hard work as a team. They have held themselves to high standards and accountability and we wanted to recognize them in this way to let them know how proud we are,” said Principal Johnson.

“As my first year here, I am proud to be a member of Northside Elementary and for this opportunity. This award shows that the teachers and staff here hold themselves to high standards and are working very hard to help our students succeed. This is a great accomplishment that these teachers have made,” added Principal Johnson.

Director Patrick Cripps and central office staff along with school board members were invited to join the school faculty and staff for the celebration.

March 5, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville gets a thumbs up from its auditor in the latest financial audit report for the year ended June 30, 2023.

John Poole, Hendersonville CPA, who performed the annual audit for the city, addressed the mayor and aldermen Monday night.

Poole said the audit showed no major deficiencies.

“In doing the state audit we are really trying to do three things. One is to make sure we provide the state the financial information that they require in their oversight. Another thing we do that is most important to this board is to look to make sure we are getting the monies we are supposed to be getting, whether that’s from annual property taxes, monthly utility billing and monies from the county and the state such as gas taxes, sales taxes, etc. as well as the interest we are earning on CDs and the collection of fines and fees and then once we receive those monies at city hall we have to make sure our employees are following city policy and handling those monies and grants appropriately. The third thing we look at is making sure the monies this board authorizes the department heads to spend is done for city business and that they are following purchasing guidelines and procedures, and we didn’t find anything to cause a concern as to how the monies are being spent. In our opinion as auditors, we didn’t see anything that gave us any concern,” said Poole.

According to Poole, the water and sewer fund showed a surplus for the year which meets the state’s requirement that the utility be financially self-supporting. “With utility funds it’s a state law that you must have at least a one-dollar surplus every other year. The change in net position for the year is $150,000 related to water and sewer (not counting grants) so we had a surplus and you certainly met the state’s threshold. From a financial standpoint your utility system is in good shape,” said Poole.

“At the end of June 2023 there was over $6 million in the water and sewer fund related to checking and savings accounts and we had some certificates of deposits of $600,000 for a total of almost $6.8 million. Our budget for the water and sewer fund is a little over $2 million so what this means is that we actually have a couple of years’ worth of (water and sewer) expenses covered in the bank account. A lot of that money will not be used just for regular expenses but also for construction projects and upgrading and improving the infrastructure of the water system but with almost $6.8 million you do have the money for when you need to take action for those kinds of things,” said Poole.

As for the general fund, Poole said the net change in position or surplus is $169,000 for the year. In the checking and savings accounts the city has in the general fund $5.6 million and CDs of over $510,000 which totals over $6 million,” Poole explained.

Although the city has some debt mostly for construction of a new police department building in 2020, Poole said overall the city’s debt amount is very low.

“We have very little debt at the City of Smithville. Certainly, for a city of this size, we have very little debt. In fact, almost no debt. Of course, that will change over time because sometimes you have to do big projects but right now when we look at the cash balances and the low amount of debt, it just shows the city’s strong financial condition,” said Poole.

After hearing Poole’s glowing report, Mayor Josh Miller said city property owners can rest assured that no city property tax rate increase will be needed anytime soon.

March 5, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Sixteen months after renaming “Walnut Alley” the “John Anderson Alley” downtown in honor of the local country music legend, the City of Smithville is paying tribute to another hometown country icon.

During Monday night’s monthly meeting, the Smithville Aldermen voted, upon the recommendation of Mayor Josh Miller, to name the alley between Main Street and Market Street in honor of Aaron Tippin. A formal dedication will come later.

“Some of the business owners had come to me and I think it would be a good idea to dedicate this alley to Aaron Tippin but we need to formally do that and get the appropriate signage. By this summer, maybe we can have a formal dedication observance,” said Mayor Miller.

Like John Anderson and wife Jamie, Aaron Tippin and his wife Thea and family have made their home in DeKalb County for many years.

In addition to having been a country music hit maker, Tippin is known as a tireless man full of enthusiasm. He’s a pilot, farmer, winemaker, outdoorsman, bodybuilder and devoted family man.

He’s also known for his patriotism and support of American troops and over the years has journeyed to Iraq and Afghanistan to sing for the troops. In 1990 at the beginning of his music career, he went with Bob Hope to the Persian Gulf to entertain.

Tippin performed at the first 9/11 memorial service in downtown Smithville shortly after the tragedy almost 23 years ago debuting his song “Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly” and he returned for the 10th year and 21st year local memorial observance in 2011 and 2022 where he again performed the hit song.

In other business the aldermen adopted a proposed rezoning ordinance on second and final reading involving a parcel of property on Kimberly Lane (Precision Concrete Walls) located across from the L.B.J. & C Head Start Center.

This property, currently zoned partially R-1 (low density residential) and C-1 (general commercial), will be rezoned entirely to C-1 (commercial) for the purpose of eventually building a multi-family dwelling. The action came following a public hearing but no one came forward to oppose the rezoning.

The Smithville Planning Commission had also recommended the rezoning.

The aldermen approved the list of volunteer firefighters for the year as submitted by Chief Charlie Parker.

These firefighters are:

Mackenley Turner, Joseph Taylor, Daine Powell, Max Lahoda, Jayden Mitchell, Eric Gaw, Ryan Evans, (career firefighter), Dylan Goodman, Tyler Cantrell, Mark Riggsbee (Auxiliary), Cole Wright, Dakota Nokes, Kayla Johnson (Auxilary), Andrew Cooper, Seth Wright, Kim Johnson, Dalton Roberts, (career firefighter), Bradley Johnson, Shawn Jacobs (Auxiliary), Becky Atnip, Cory Killian, Glen Lattimore, (career firefighter), Stephanee Tramel, James R. Hunt, Gary Johnson, William (Wink) Brown, Greg Bess (Photographer), Captain John Poss, Assistant Chief Jeff Wright, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale, Captain Donnie Cantrell, Captain Danny Poss, and Chief Charlie Parker (career firefighter).